Published: May 19, 2000
STARVATION
IN ETHIOPIA, HELP SLOWLY ARRIVING, DEATH TOLL CANNOT BE DETERMINED
By Howard A. Gutman
A massive tragedy is unfolding in Ethiopia
as thousands of starving people are expected to die. Without help, many expect the death toll to
be in the millions. Yet little
is being done in the U.S.; on a 1-100 scale a drop in the Nasdaq is a
90, 100,000 people dying of starvation in Ethiopia is a 0.
Here are some of the recent headlines.
Drought, hunger won't relent in Ethiopia
Familiar problems threaten millions of lives in this African country.
Children are dying as aid trickles in.
By Vivienne Walt
Special for USA TODAY May 8,
2000
DENAN, Ethiopia -- Abdi Rahman gathered
his wife, his three children and his donkey and headed out of their village
of Farjano late last month, across the searing Ogaden desert. The cattle were dying. The journey was fateful.
The first night, Rahman's 1-year-old son died in his arms. ''We dug a
simple hole and walked on,'' he says. The next day, his 3-year-old daughter
collapsed and died. Again, he dug a hole, buried his child, chanted a
Muslim prayer and moved on. That night, his 2-year-old son died. ''I'm a religious man,'' says Rahman, 30. ''I
suppose Allah thought their time had come.'' By the time they reached
this tiny settlement, only Rahman, his wife and the donkey were left.
They found themselves among thousands of people clamoring for donated
food, handed out by a local official. Rahman strapped two bags of grain
on the back of his donkey and began the three-day walk home. The journey
home would take him and his wife past the anonymous mounds of dirt that
marked their toddlers' graves -- and probably the burial sites of many
others who expired along the way.
The story of what's happening in Ethiopia
may sound depressingly familiar to people elsewhere. Once again, tragedy
is striking a poor African nation. Once again, the people in danger say
aid isn't reaching them fast enough even as experts debate how much needs
to be done and whether the aid that gets sent will ever reach those most
in need. Once again, thousands, perhaps millions, of lives are in jeopardy.
Also once again, the familiar stories are almost impossibly sad. Tales
of death sift across Denan with the fine sands of the surrounding desert.
Listening to those stories, it appears
that an entire generation of children is battling to stay alive through
one of the worst droughts here in several years. Until last week, it had
not rained, other than a few light drizzles, for three years in much of
eastern Ethiopia, where about 1.3 million people eke out a living. Many
are semi-nomadic, moving with their small herds among sparse grazing places.
To many Westerners, Ethiopia became
synonymous with famine in 1984, when 800,000 people died during a similar
drought. The disaster brought huge donations, including $70 million raised
by the Live Aid rock concert in 1985 and from sales of the song We Are
the World.
But this time, only a trickle of aid
has arrived in the drought zone. So far, the U.S. and European governments
have pledged about 700,000 tons of food, short of the 1 million tons the
U.N. food program estimates will be needed this year.
Ethiopians say help has come far too
late. ''Our organization was crying out since June 1999,'' says Muhammed
Abdi, director of the Ogaden Welfare Society. ''People didn't take us
seriously. They thought we just wanted to raise money.''
Many countries that have given in the
past are withholding aid on purpose, fearful that a large-scale humanitarian
campaign might fuel the country's war against Eritrea. The two countries
have been fighting a bitter border war since 1998, when Eritrea split
off from Ethiopia.
Though some grain and water is arriving,
there is almost no medicine. ''Very
few people are dying of actual starvation,'' Lewis says. ''They are dying
of diarrhea, measles, bronchial infections: things which kill because
they are so weak and have no water.''
The first to fall generally are the children because they are growing
and more dependent on a stable food supply.
''Children are vulnerable for the same
reason that our own children in our families are so susceptible to illness:
Their bodies are still developing, and they need a lot more food,'' says
Alfred Ironside, UNICEF spokesman, who is working in Ethiopia. ''The food chain has been completely disrupted,
and the children grow weaker more quickly,'' he says. ''They can't fight
off illnesses like diarrhea. In just a few weeks, they can grow very weak,
and when that happens, they're in serious danger.''
DANAN, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Four-year
old Miyir Mohammed was the third child to die on Friday morning in Danan,
a small town in the dry plains of southeastern Ethiopia. His mother Safia pulled a cloth back to reveal
her baby boy's tiny skeletal frame, his ribs and shoulder blade painfully
visible, his cheeks sunken, his tiny mouth gaping open.
ANSWERS TO SOME COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS
- How serious is the situation in Ethiopia?
Very, informed observers predict up to 5 million deaths in the next few months if help is not provided. In the last famine, there were approximately one million deaths.
- Given the magnitude of this tragedy, why isn't
this story getting more coverage. Traditionally, stories involving deaths
in Africa have received lesser coverage than those which occur elsewhere.
However, the suffering is real and involves fathers and mothers,
children and the ill who usually die first.
Fortunately a rain on May 5 together with Western aid slowly
coming through is helping to avoid a massive tragedy but people can
continue to starve and die
- What can we do to help?
Contribute to the major relief organizations, Care, Save the Children, Red Cross, UMCOR. Write to your congressman, urge them to help those who are starving, start a drive at your church or temple.